Southern Africa: Humanitarian Overview (as of January 2014)

Southern Africa is prone to multiple, frequently repeating and compounding shocks, including drought, floods, cyclones, epidemics and crop pests. These shocks, occurring against a backdrop of poverty, have severe impacts on food and livelihood security, attested to by pervasive and extreme rates of chronic child malnutrition.

The region's crumbling infrastructure cannot support current trends in population growth and urbanization, and the lack of basic services in for example health care and education only contributes to increasing vulnerability, feeding a vicious cycle that can only be broken by employing new approaches that bridge the humanitarian and developmental divide and build the resilience of communities.